


Coming Home

by truethingsproved



Category: Graceland (TV)
Genre: F/M, abby sinclair is the light of my life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 11:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1777543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truethingsproved/pseuds/truethingsproved
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He hates the fluorescent lighting in the office above the copy machine. He hates that the coffee always tastes too watery. He hates that he can't hear the ocean from his office. He hates that he has to wear layers in his own bedroom if he wants to function without freezing. (He likes that he can wear scarves again--he always did love scarves.) But more than anything he hates that he comes home to empty rooms and silence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

Mike has been in DC for mere weeks and already he hates it.

He hates the fluorescent lighting in the office above the copy machine. He hates that the coffee always tastes too watery. He hates that he can't hear the ocean from his office. He hates that he has to wear layers in his own bedroom if he wants to function without freezing. (He likes that he can wear scarves again--he always did love scarves.) But more than anything he hates that he comes home to empty rooms and silence.

The first weekend he's back in DC he goes to the nearest Yankee Candle and spends nearly a hundred dollars on candles that are supposed to smell like the sea, like the beach, like the sunset over the water and Charlie's soap and Johnny's pancakes and Paul's rum. They're all heavily perfumed, cheap imitations, and he hates them, but he burns one constantly whenever he's home.

At first he Skypes Charlie and Johnny daily, but then they're so busy and he's so busy and after a while they're just never available at the same time, and Mike wonders how the cold anonymity of his suits and his staplers ever felt like home.

\------

The Director likes him. That much, at least, is good; he comes back from Graceland with the world in the palm of his hands and any opportunity he could dream at his fingertips. There's talk of awards that Mike shuts down as quickly as he can (no need, he figures, for Casa to catch wind of anything more that indicates that he's a Fed, even if he's sure Bello talked). The other agents want nothing more than to welcome him into their world but he falls asleep every night dreaming of sand under his shoes and Bello's cigars.

He has nightmares, too, nightmares he doesn't talk about, nightmares about Eddie and Randall and Bello, nightmares about  _el hombre llaves_  and what would have happened if he'd gotten to Charlie and Paul just a few minutes later, nightmares about the way that Charlie shook too much to stand on her own and the way she'd felt so thin when he wrapped her in blankets and all but carried her back into Graceland.

About two weeks after his arrival he goes to a bar and introduces himself as Mike, the pilot to the pretty brunette drinking beer with her friends. He thinks she's Abby, at first, but her eyes are green and her smile is wicked. Her name is Lydia. She doesn't call him back and he doesn't mind.

\------

He's there a month when he's called in for a meeting with a law firm that's handling a case that he might be interested in. Apparently an agent is being brought up on murder charges and the Director is taking the time to meet with the agent's lawyers, some hotshot from around town who's got one of the highest win rates in the tri-state area.

"It's nothing that you can't hear," the Director explains to Mike as they walk to the conference room. "Take notes if you want. Listen in, learn something."

They get to the conference room five minutes early and it's not until eighteen minutes later that the lawyer arrives. She's tall and terrifying and Mike likes her instantly, the casual arrogance that reminds him so much of Paul, the smile--what would Charlie have called it? An  _I'm-gonna-bust-an-asshole_  smile--that almost makes him shiver. But it's the woman who comes in after her that Mike notices, the long, dark hair and the huge brown eyes and the bold red lipstick.

Everyone is introducing themselves but Mike doesn't hear a thing. He just stands and extends his hand, and the second woman is too shocked to respond for a moment, before she takes his hand in hers. The feeling is so familiar that if Mike closes his eyes he swears he can hear the laughter of the Drop and the click and thud of an eight ball.

"Mike," she says slowly, shaking his hand, and both of their bosses are turning to look at them in surprise. "Mike, who likes Baltimore girls."

He has imagined her voice a thousand times since he heard it last and he sees her in the back of his mind almost always but she's even more beautiful than he remembered. "Abby," he answers, and his lips curl up in a smile even though he's almost too afraid to breathe. "Abby, who doesn't like liars."

There's a beat, and then she smiles, too, and they all sit down and even as they take notes and listen to discussion of the case they're sneaking glances at each other.

When they stand to leave Mike carefully reaches out to brush his fingers against her elbow. "Can I--can we--?"

"Yeah," she says, and he visibly relaxes. "Call me, and we can grab lunch over the weekend. Let me get you my card--"

"It's okay," he says quickly, "I remember your number."

Mike doesn't think that Abby means to smile quite so quickly, or quite so beautifully, but he's caught off guard by her gentle laugh and the flash of teeth. "Good," she says, and then she's gone.

It's not until Mike gets home that night that he realizes he's smiled more today than he has in weeks. He leaves Charlie a video message even though she's not online and he tells her how much he misses her, the house, the rest of the agents, but most of all how much he misses home, and his family.

When he wakes up the next morning Charlie's left him a video message in response. It's short, and it's just her smiling at the camera and shaking her head.

"I'll be online tonight and we can catch up. But we miss you." She pauses, then--"Love you too, Mikey."

\------

"So that's why you were lying."

Abby leaves lipstick marks on her coffee cup, and she leaves one on his when he offers to let her try a sip. He rubs the stain away with his thumb but his skin still feels waxy and smells like berries, like her lipstick, like her.

"Yeah," he says, and he offers her a crooked smile. "And that's why I didn't lead with 'I'm a pilot'."

"It explains all the guns," she muses. Her hair keeps flying in her face from the wind and she pauses to push it back, again. She's wearing a scarf that looks soft and Mike wants nothing more than to push the fabric away and bury his face in the curve of her neck and whisper a hundred thousand apologies.

"Yeah," he repeats, and this time he laughs--and so does she. "And Paige dressing like that."

"She looked like something out of a spy movie," Abby agrees, and they're standing together on a DC sidewalk laughing like old friends. "And Johnny? He was too?"

"He was," Mike confirms, and they start walking again. "I wanted to tell you. I did. I figured, if we could make it until I came back east, when I didn't have to maintain covers anymore, I could tell you everything and beg your forgiveness and we could figure it out from there."

She pauses, considering this, and there are a thousand reasons she should walk away right now. They both know this. Mike could give her an alphabetized list of all the reasons why she's better off without him and he wouldn't blame her a bit for turning around and going back the way she came.

But then she's leaning forward and pressing her lips against his and when Mike closes his eyes, his free hand splayed out across her back and her hair whipping around them both, he sees the crowded bar, he sees the sun rising over the Pacific, he sees her in a towel in the kitchen drinking coffee and mussing his hair, and for the first time since he left Graceland he feels like he's home.

When she pulls back she's smiling still. "So you figured out who you are?" she prompts, and when he nods she hooks her free hand around the back of his neck. "Then I think I might let you take me out again, Mike, who likes Baltimore girls."

"I'd really like that," he says softly, and his eyes crinkle when he smiles back. "Abby, who doesn't like liars."

She closes the distance between them to kiss him again, and she whispers against his mouth, "Well, not  _all_  liars."

\------

They fall back into each other with a familiarity that Mike never could have dreamed he'd find again. The mornings he wakes up to Abby are always the best he has, and they go to Ikea together one morning to get a bookcase for Abby's apartment and spend the entire afternoon trying to understand how to assemble it before falling back on the sofa, laughing until she kisses him silent.

She's almost shy the first time Mike invites her to stay for a Skype call with Johnny, but she relaxes as soon as she sees the familiar smiling face and within minutes the two are chatting like they've known one another their entire lives. When the call ends he wraps both arms around her from behind, pressing his lips to the side of her neck and smiling into her skin.

"Thank you," he says, and she turns around in his grasp, puzzled.

"For what?"

He leaves a trail of kisses across her jaw before bringing his attention back to her lips. "For wanting to be a part of all of this," he says, and he gestures vaguely. "My world."

Abby shrugs and grins and says, "Well, it's my world now, too," and Mike wonders if it's possible to be happier.

\------

Abby likes snow in October and movies with Marlene Dietrich and color-coded office supplies and red velvet cupcakes and used books and birds and old photo albums and the smell of berries and crabs and she doesn't like liars but she likes Mike Warren and Mike is pretty sure that he loves her.

And that, he realizes, wrapped in blankets and wrapped around her, that's enough to make the cold anonymity of DC feel like home again.

**Author's Note:**

> hello friends! first things first--eeeeeeeeee graceland is back graceland is back graceland is baaaaaaaack
> 
> literally the only point to this is that i adore abby sinclair and i'm a thousand different kinds of sad that she's not coming back (i daydream that she becomes an fbi agent and gets a gun and a regular spot almost daily) so if you're like me you're living in a really lovely alternate universe where she and mike move back to california and are married supersecret agents together in graceland.
> 
> i'm susanspevensie on tumblr and would love feedback/to make friends with more abby fans, so feel free to drop me a message! 
> 
> forever thanks to the absolutely incredible sarah for a) reading this and giving me feedback and b) generally being the loveliest person alive.


End file.
